The Question Was Excellent-It Won't Be on the Test Next Time

Summer had arrived, yet a roaring fire still burned in the fireplace, making the room atop the tower hotter than ever before. The thick, intoxicating aroma made Loren cough.

Navigating around the haphazardly arranged tables and chairs, Loren approached Professor Trelawney, who sat behind the large crystal ball. Trelawney wore large glasses on her gaunt face, and her neck was adorned with an excessive number of chains and beads, almost bending her back under their weight.

She seemed a little dazed, and only when Loren approached did she come to her senses and say softly, "Oh, I'm sorry, my dear child, it's so hot, I just took a nap..."

"Darling, now look at this crystal ball...look slowly...and then tell me what you see..."

"Okay..." Loren leaned down to look at the crystal ball, observing the swirling white mist inside, and said casually, "Professor, I've heard that you are the great-great-granddaughter of the famous prophet Cassandra Trelawney."

Trelawney raised an eyebrow and gestured with her chin with a touch of demureness. "My dear child, it seems you are a student who truly loves Divination. I must commend your knowledge... Yes, I am indeed the great-great-granddaughter of the Prophet, and I am the only one who has inherited her Prophecy talent."

"The gift of Prophecy, is that what you often call the Inner Eye '?"

"Yes, but not just Inner Eye."

White mist floated continuously inside the crystal ball, its shape failing to solidify.

Without looking up, Loren said, "Professor, I've always been very curious about what the Prophecy seen by the Inner Eye actually look like. Are they written words, sounds, images, or some other form?"

"Yes--"

Trelawney paused in her reply, her brows furrowing slowly as she looked on with a hint of doubt and contemplation.

"Professor?" Loren looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Trelawney composed himself and, adopting a professorial tone, advised, "Focus on the exam!"

"OK..."

Loren lowered his head, staring intently at the crystal ball. "Professor, I've read in some books that some prophets make Prophecy unconsciously. Do you know how that works?"

"Of course..." Trelawney paused, "When consciousness is far removed from the mortal world, the Inner Eye becomes clearer and brighter, allowing the prophet to see the future more clearly."

The clouds inside the crystal ball slowed down, slowly gathering together to form some irregular and ambiguous shapes.

Loren asked, "I have a question, Professor. If a prophet is not in his right mind when he makes Prophecy and there is no one else around, wouldn't no one know about the prophet's Prophecy?"

"Oh, dear... Prophecy is meant to provide revelation and signs; it doesn't happen when no one knows..." Trelawney said in a dreamlike voice, "Now tell me, what did you see in the crystal ball?"

"Hmm, it looks like a floating cloak..."

Loren glanced at the crystal ball and casually made up a story. "It looks like a lot of running Werewolf."

"Why are Werewolf running? What are they doing?" Trelawney asked softly. "Think about it..."

"Perhaps they are fleeing some terrible calamity," Loren replied.

"A calamity that terrifies Werewolf, good, very good!" Trelawney murmured, eagerly jotting down notes on the parchment on his lap. "Your insight is very sharp, my child... You may have foreseen the aftermath of the Anti-Werewolf Law, the scene of the Ministry of Magic expelling Werewolf! Look closely, did the Werewolf escape in the end? Did they survive?"

Loren was somewhat surprised; he hadn't realized he'd seen so much. He replied uncertainly, "Um... part of it... is dead?"

"Are you sure, child? Did you see any corpses scattered on the ground, or dismembered limbs, or splattered blood...?"

"..."

It was evening, and there was still an hour left before lights out.

The young wizards, who had just finished their Arithmancy exams, gradually returned from their classrooms to the Common Room of their respective houses.

The young wizards in the corridor shook their drowsy heads, their eyes glazed over, and remained silent. No one wanted to mention the test questions again. The test was over, and so was the torment.

The Arithmancy exam was open-book with only one question. Professor Victor found a little-known wizard from a history book and asked the young wizard to calculate his life based on clues such as his birth date, death date, name, and a palmistry chart. He was required to completely deduce his upbringing, life events, achievements, and cause of death.

The questions were very well-designed and novel, which solidified the determination of many young wizards to drop the course.

Some young wizards, in order to avoid submitting a blank paper, even fabricated a dramatic biographical novel.

Loren and Hermione walked down the street and quickly compared their answers. Apart from their life achievements and cause of death, which matched, the rest were dozens of Quidditch Pitch off.

Hermione, unusually, didn't argue with Loren. That's how Arithmancy works; as long as the problem-solving methods and thinking are the same, it's normal for the interpretation of the results to be different, especially since they got two of them right.

Loren popped a hazelnut chocolate into Hermione's mouth; the exam had been too tiring, and she needed something sweet to calm down.

Hermione swallowed the chocolate in her mouth, licked her slightly protruding front teeth, and asked in a slightly slurred voice, "Loren, what's this about the Prophecy Harry mentioned? What exactly happened during your Divination Class exam?"

"To be honest, I'm not really sure either..."

Loren casually handed him another one and slowly recounted the events of the morning. "... Then I went back to the Common Room to meet you, and you know the rest. I think Harry has already spoken with Dumbledore."

"So Professor Trelawney is a real prophet?" Hermione's face was full of suspicion.

"I think so..."

Hermione fell silent upon hearing this.

She began to doubt herself. Could it be true that Professor Trelawney's bluffing words about her lack of talent and Inner Eye were true?

Then, recalling those obvious fraudulent methods, Hermione became convinced that Professor Trelawney was a fraud, at least a complete fraud when he was teaching.

Hermione for a while, until the sweetness in her mouth had faded, and another hazelnut chocolate was stuffed into her mouth, before asking again, "What do you think Headmaster Dumbledore will do?"

"Just do what needs to be done..." Loren's voice sounded completely unconcerned. "Didn't we already know that Voldemort would come back?"

Hermione suddenly realized that this made sense. She crushed the hazelnuts wrapped in the chocolate with her teeth and then brought up an unrelated topic. "Loren, how about we go to United States for the holidays?"

"Agree."

Don't you want to know why I planned this?

Loren hesitated for a moment. "Hmm... to learn American English?"

"Don't think I don't know this is the joke book you've been reading lately..." Hermione snatched a chocolate and raised her voice slightly, "To see what the International Confederation of Wizards like!"

"Oh..." Loren nodded. "Professor Granger wants to see what Minister Granger's work entails in advance."

Hermione glared at him and snatched all the hazelnut chocolates from his hand.

Bang!

Boom!

Bang!

Before even entering the Portrait Hole, Loren and Hermione heard muffled thuds coming from the common room.

In the Common Room after the exam, even the Banshee would have to retreat, the explosions and the screams of the little wizards were deafening.

Upon entering, they found that Harry and Ron had already returned from the Headmaster's office.

The two men had very complicated expressions. Dumbledore spoke for nearly two hours, summarizing the previous school year, looking ahead to the next, and even discussing Professor Lupin's future...

Harry and Ron listened, but it was as if they hadn't heard anything at all. They came back with a belly full of sugary drinks, and in short, they were very confused.